The state ranks 41st of 50 states in children's overall well-being, according to The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Kids County Data Book released today in partnership with advocacy group Children Now.

"This report shows California is continuing to sell children short," said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now. "We know the smartest investment the state can make is in children's development. By choosing to prioritize other political interests, the state's policymakers are passing big, unnecessary costs to all Californians and the rest of the nation."

The revamped Data Book ranks each state on key indicators across four broad categories of economic well-being, education, health and family and community. With the exception of health, where California ranks 23rd, the state ranks near the bottom of all other categories of children's well-being.

In San Joaquin County, where the state reported an unemployment rate of 14.9 percent in June, a whopping 30 percent of children younger than 5 live in poverty and a bruising foreclosure crisis continues to uproot families.

"We've seen a lot of families displaced because parents lost their jobs. People that have always worked before, they are just not able to find a job," said Leslie Reese, director of family services at Family Resource and Referral in Stockton. "We've seen people have to move away, move in with family, move to the shelter - a lot of people who were stable are just hitting one roadblock after another."

The nonprofit - it aims to help families connect with information and services in the areas of child care, parenting, nutrition and child safety - has experienced firsthand the impact of tough financial times because of the state's $16 billion budget deficit.

The agency is already serving 800 fewer children than the previous year because of cuts.

"I'm on the waiting list for subsidized day care in San Joaquin County but I haven't been called yet," said Salma Khan, a single mother of two who moved to Lathrop in February. "Without help, day care will take up one-third of my paycheck. I'm a single mom. So what do I do?"

Khan is an example of the report's finding that 33 percent of children live in single-parent households.

"Do I quit my job?" she said, explaining she is desperate to find affordable after-school day care. "Thankfully, my boss is flexible, but I am freaking out."

However, the agency she has turned to for help is facing the possibility that further funding losses will put 400 additional children at risk of losing subsidized child care.

"We are in a pretty desperate situation when it comes to our kids right now," said Kay Ruhstaller, executive director of the Family Resource and Referral Center. "Our children are not faring very well when it comes to budget cuts."

The report's sobering findings illustrate how California's most vulnerable residents are being hit hardest by the recession.

According to the Data Book, children statewide are struggling in wake of the recession, with 36 percent of the state's children - 3.3 million - in families where no parent has full-time, year-round employment. That is a 20 percent increase since 2008. Family and community are critical to a child's opportunity to succeed, but approximately one in four California children lives in a family where the head of household lacks a high school diploma, placing the state last in the nation.

And, the Data Book found, only 48 percent of California's 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool.

At the YMCA of San Joaquin County, state budget cuts eliminated money that provided scholarships for 10 low-income children to attend the Y's Lion Pride Preschool in Linden.

"We are licensed for 30 kids at that site, and 10 of those spots were fully funded by First 5 San Joaquin - that was state money to help low-income children, and it totally dried up in June," said Rich Good, executive director at the Y. "I am actually meeting with community leaders in the Linden area to ask for scholarship help."

Children Now officials said they hope the report sheds light on the need for policies that support childhood development.

"We must hold the state's policymakers more accountable for failing to invest in children, because their poor decisions will certainly have a lasting effect on the economic and civic fabric of our state." said Lempert of Children Now, a research, policy development and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting children's health and education.